by the Lord of Hoasts not only refuse to disband but as aforesaid march up and bring that evill upon the Parliament which by their own and the Kingdoms Protestation they feared from the Northern Army Viz A Rape and Force upon them And that by your continuance in Armes should occasion as through the Activity of Malignant Spirits so generally through the sence the Countries and the Kingdom had of their unsupportable burthen by your means to be again imbroyled in a New War Wherein as you are not guiltlesse as in the occasion of the war So chiefly in the interruption of that peace so generally desired And therefore when as the poor Kingdom torn and rent with civill wars weary of its burthen seeing no hopes of ending by the Sword but that one extremity did daily beget another had prevailed by their Petitions to the Parliament for a Treaty which was obtained and in it such a progresse made as that the Parliament notwithstanding your Remonstrance voted The Kings last Answer to be a good foundation for a Peace and settlement Yet who hath disappointed the Kingdoms hopes but you not only inveighing against the Treaty as just or safe for the Parliament to mannage though you durst when time was presume to Treat with him your selves when it was unquestionably unjust for you having no delegation from the Kingdome or its Representatives but also by the power of the Sword to interrupt it without and against the consent of the oppressed Kingdom whose cry I fear is gone up to heaven against you Besides which with your interposition in the affaires of the Kingdome in taking the work out of the hand of the Kingdoms Representative Have you not by your late practises not only endeavoured but acted those iniquities which you were only raised to prevent in the forces raised by the King namely the subverting of the fundamentall Laws of England the power and priviledges of the Parliament and the lawfull Liberties of the Subject And all under the colour of laying new foundations for freedome which in the language of Justice Sedgwick have little of right freedome or common safety in them being framed with restect to your own private interest why therefore saith he doe you dissemble with men holding forth a foundation to settle the Kingdom when that you doe professe your selves to be appointed and called for breaking in pieces the powers of the world page 48. But if there be any reall intentions in you of a settlement which your intimate friend doth much question that you may see what your private spirits confident of their Abillity and Judgement for greatest matters of State Policy have produced to impose upon the Kingdome I shall give you the description of your intended Government by Justice Sedg Not in his New View but in his True View of the Army p. 22. For your present forme of Government it is such a headlesse Monster such a boddy doddy such an all breech so different from the Majesty of God and the Wisdome of men that it would fright solid and serious men to their Armes If I should fight against any thing I should fight against this But more seriously hoping that God will never permit you to erect and set up a second Fabrick that falling so short of the glory of the first Temple of our Government should fill all Spectators with watery eyes and yet extreamely fearing lest that under all your pretences for justice instead of any kinde of Government you are laying the foundation of perpetuall misery unto this Kingdome both by intestine and Forraigne troubles Oh let Odeds interrogation take hold of your hearts are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God not onely in Relation unto the King and Parliament but in Relation unto the whole Kingdome But in the fourth place let me be your Remembrancer a little further And with Oded aske you Are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God not onely in relation to King Parliament and Kingdome but also in relation to the Metropolis of the Kingdome the Famous City of London the great assistant of the Parliament Famous for its incouragement to the Parliament in maintaining it as was acknowledged by Mr. John Pym in his Speech to them Novemb. 10. 1641. Not to speake of its sufferings in common with the Kingdome by the meanes of your former disobedience to the Parliament Or to minde you at large of the contempt you poured upon the City shortly after when you marched through the City as Conquerours with Bayes in your hats your possessing your selves of the Tower of London casting out their Lievetenant put in by the Parliament at their request impeaching and imprisoning by your meanes some of their Aldermen that were knowne to be of Publique Spirits not inriching themselves with the ruines of the Kingdome together with some of the Common Councell both for piety and stability to their Principles Protestation Vow and Covenant without exception charging the whole City with defection and Apostacy from the Parliament I beseech you seriously consider cannot they taxe you with unfaithfulnesse as well as King Parliament and Kingdome Peruse but your Letter sent to them from Royston June 10. 1647. Wherin you professe you desire no alteration of the Civill Government nor that you seek to open a way unto licentious liberty under pretence of obtaining ease for tender consciences page 5. and doe not you professe that when the State hath once made a settlement you have nothing to say but to submit or to suffer Do but compare your practices with this profession made unto the City and consider whether you have not much cause to be humbled are not all your present practices in opposition to the Parliament Kingdome and City made our of measure sinnefull by acting so contrary unto your profession But besides all this Consider I pray you the feares and the dangers which you have exposed them unto in this your last expedition against the Parliament not to speake of your unreasonable demands for monies in such vast summes your menacing pressing for your arreares even for those twelve moneths service past since the Vote of your disbanding Is not your possessing your selves of the gates of the City planting Ordinances against them as in Black-friers and other places your violent seizing upon the person of their Shreive Major Generall Browne Are not these most injurious and unchristian carriages to the City And besides the unconceivable damage you have brought unto it by the decay of trade and merchandizing who knoweth what further danger may arise by quartering the Army thus amongst them These things thus laid together and well weighed must needs bring you to a sound conviction that there are with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God in relation to the City Again are there not with you even with you sins against the Gedly learned and sound Ministers in the Kingdome Are you not such
and open violence upon many of the most cordiall and truly Godly Members of the House of Commons by which the Priviledges and Freedome of Parliament were transcendently broken by you Besides this I say and your intentions by force to put a speedy period unto this Parliament I beseech you search into your Consciences and seriously examin your selves whether you have not a more sinful and sacrilegious design against the Parliament having forced them to rob and ravish them of their Coercive power in spiritualls in things pertaining to Religion though you doe pretend that you have faithfully remonstrated your Grievances with the Remedies yet your dissimulation is without comparison in that though not a word in your Remonstrance concerning Tolleration as declaring it to bee the rise or ground of these your present Commotions yet is it evident by your present agitations That the Magistrats of your making shall neither have Coercive or Restrictive power in matters of Religion and that by Club-law you would deprive this present Parliament of the fame which I beseech you to weigh seriously and consider the guile and the guilt of this design which is aggravated by what you doe acknowledge page 20. Your Remonstrance That it is the Parliaments interest in plaine english that which doth belong to them To protect and countenance Religions men and godlinesse in the power of it to give freedome and inlargement unto the Gospel to take away those corrupt formes of an outside Religion and Church-government All which by the abuse of that power they have put in your hands you would now wrest out of their shires which with many other sinnes against the Parliament in that horible contempt that you have cast upon them If but brought home by a sound conviction must needs make you acknowledge in this respect there are with you even with you sinnes against the Lord your God in relation to the Parliament 3. But thirdly are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God in relation to the whole Kingdom Besides the miseries contracted upon the Kingdom since your refusall to disband at the command of the Parliament in the extream expences and charges you have drawn upon them by taxes and free-quarter wherein you have shewed but little publick-spiritednesse or love unto the Common wealth Though you have pretended to a great deal of bleeding of soule that you should be forced to take Free quarter for want of pay But that your dissimulation is great in this particular and so your sin answerable against the Kingdom You have almost doubled the burthen even upon those that would willingly have paid you the States pay per diem either for horse or man to be freed from such troublesome and uncomfortable Guests But alas what is this to what you have done against the whole Kingdome in your late transactions How doth this Remonstrance demonstrate that there are with you even with you sins against the whole Kingdom You doe pretend unto Salus Populi and that extremity of publich danger hath put you upon these extraordinary wayes you have taken But hath the Kingdom sensible of this their Publick danger invested you with any power to stir up these commotions in their behalf Are you in the condition of Representatives for the Kingdom Why then doe you so deceitfully pretend unto publick danger when as that by your walking out of Gods way you are like to be the only instruments of danger unto the Publicke as well as your selves Hath the Kingdom called upon you in their Names to cry out for Jastice to interrupt the Treaty to muster up so many Arguments against the goodnesse and safety of it which you have presented in so many sheets of paper in your Remonstrance containing more of the Serpents Subtlety then the Doves Innocency Are your Proposals therein for the altering the fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdome are these injunctions laid upon you by the Originall of all power as you pretend the People of the Kingdome Alas they know none of these things so as to approve of them not one of a hundred will own what you doe set down for the Publick Interest Nor subscribe unto that Agreement that you speak on pag. 66. And yet such is your Arrogancy Injustice and sublimed Tyranny that though but an inconsiderable part of the Kingdome and that a diseased one but a Member of the body Politique in comparison of the whole and that a dislocated one yet how cruelly would you indeavour to force the whole body of the Kingdome to an agreement with your dis-joynted part to rack and torture their consciences with a subscription unto your intended Tolleration and Confusion And yet without this Subscription though none can take away the Kingdomes liberties without their personall or represertatives consent yet have you so proposed or rather imposed it upon the Parliament in your remonstrance that none shall either elect their Representatives who shall not joyne in agreement to this settlement page 66. or be Elected unto any office or place of publique trust without expresse accord and subscriptions to the same page 67. Certainely Sirs your injustice and cruelty to the Kingdome will cry loud in the eares of God against you Especially considering the aggravations of it even in relation to the Kingdome that you deale so injuriously withall That when a Kingdom by the first Remonstrance of their Representatives in Parliament made sensible of their danger both in regard of Spirituall and Secular Interests and withall assured in the same of the reallity of their intentions to prevent it without the change of the frame of the civill Government or letting loose the golden reines of the Ecclesiasticall and upon satisfaction given by the Magistracy and Ministery of the lawfulnes of opposing the Kings Arbitrary power without the breach of the Oath of Allegiance unto his Person as is evident by the first Protestation May 5. 1641 the chief Subject of it being to maintain and defend Religion his Majesties Royall Person Honour and Estate according to the duty of our Allegiance as also the power and priviledges of Parliament with the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject And the ground of it being but a suspicion of endeavours to subvert the fundamentall Laws and to introduce the exercise of an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall government by most pernicious and wicked counsells and plots amongst which is instanced their jealousie of being forced by that English Armie then on foot Which were then strong Arguments to incourage the Kingdome generally to enter into that ingagement and after that to proceed further to the opposition of the Kings forces in a defensive wat which in the second vow was clearly expressed to be their intent of raising Forces Viz. For the defence of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Subject against the Forces raised by the King That now the Forces so raised by the Parliament for the Kingdoms good should after crowned with successe
either the Lord would smite him immediately or if not he should shortly end his daies according to the course of nature or that he should come to a casuall end Oh Sirs you that doe professe your selves to be Saints as David walke not by reason or providence without or against a precept behold his consident perswasion that God had waies enough to free him from his potent Adversary but by no sinnefull shifts or pretences would he free himselfe Ambition and selfe-love were both mortified in him let them be so in you if you are Saints indeed His faith did subjugate his carnall reason and experience Oh show that that precious grace is not dead at the roote in you but stirre up those sparkes of it that are ready to goe out that it may breake out into a flame and walke by the light of that and not of reason and experience the ordinary lights that men walke by That so you who are but private persons that were never called or chosen for those services in which you are now so sedulous nor to cry for justice upon the grounds already mentioned by Mr. Sedgwick may desist from these conscience-wasting and land desolating courses of yours and putting your trust in the Lord you leane no more unto your own understanding I conclude therefore the Counsell given in relation to the King with a point of Doctrine Collected by Master Henry Burton who being dead yet speaketh in his booke for God and the King p. 44. where from his aforesaid Text he raiseth this point of Doctrine That the true fear of a King as it is a filiall fear so it is a fear of adherency a fear full of loyalty and fidelity which makes a true Subject to stick so close to his Prince at all times and in all conditions as nothing shall make a separation But then secondly as I would desire you to heare mee and deliver up your Captived King So likewise I beseech you heare me now and deliver up again your Captives of the Parliament men for if to retaine prisoners of warre that are brethren as Captives may expose an Army unto the fierce wrath of God as appeareth in this history 2 Chron. 28.21 Now heare me therefore and deliver the Captives again which you have taken captive of your brethren for the fierce wrath of God is upon you For this was spoken to the Army that successefull Army Oh what divine vengeance and fiery indignation is like to fall upon you without repentance for the violence you offered unto the persons of so many godly and sincere assertors of the Subjects libertie and the Kingdomes good If to offend but one of Christs little ones may expose a person to a condition more eligible then to have a milstone hanged about his necke and be drowned in the depth of the Sea Mat. 18.6 I say if to offend but one little one may prove so dreadfull to the offendor what then to offend an eminent Sufferer for the Publick a strong man in Christ that could suffer 8 years imprisonment 4 of them close 3 in exile three Pillories with the losse of eares calling and estate for the publicke good both in relation to Church and State And I beseech you consider doe you thinke that you did not offend him when you seized forcibly upon his person going to the House to discharge his duty haled him violently thence into the Queenes Court notwithstanding his protestation of breach of priviledge and a double demand of the House that raised you for his present inlargement Doe you thinke you did not offend him when you carried him prisoner to Hell and there shut him up all night without any lodging or other accommodations keeping him still prisoner deprived of his liberty and calling without objecting the least cause for this your unjust restraint Oh that God would but convince you both of your sinne and danger Not only in relation to that most eminent Martyr and true Philopater who hath solemnly declared this and more then I have charged upon you before the most just and righteous God of Heaven and Earth the searcher of all hearts the whole Kingdome English Nation and the World in his declaration subscribed William Prynne Decem. 26. 1648. But also in relation to the violence and offence offered unto not that one but many godly and sincere Patriots for I cannot thinke but that there are many such amongst those imprisoned and secluded Members being above one hundred in number which I beseech you let not seeme a small sinne no sinne in your sight If that you call the Kings attempt in his proceedings against the Members bee impeached that appeared to assert common liberties against his interest to witnesse his revenge page 31 Oh what may be said not only for your bold attempt but unparalel'd execution of that violence upon the persons of many that appeared in the House to sticke fast unto their first principles or the publique against your interest of Anarchy and Tolleration loaden with unchristian reproaches of rotten Members Apostates and such as drive private designes But do you thinke the searcher of all hearts can be blinded as you would doe the Kingdome who now see into the ground of that violence offered unto the persons of their Representatives and secluding them from the House That so those whom you have thought fitting to set there may vote and unvote what you would have them and do you think that the righteous judge of the whole world will not declare against you by some visible tokens of his displeasure for these things was the fierce wrath of God upon the Souldiery in this History for their cruell intentions towards their brethren and shall you escape Assure your selves if that God loves you he will rebuke and chasten you and wil make you know that it is an evil thing and a bitter to walk in such ways as are so unwarrantable and unsuitable to your profession And therefore now I beseech you hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Set the members at liberty that you have restrained declare your hearty sorrow and repentance for those sinnes that are in you even in you against the Lord your God of which I have bin your Remembrancer Publish your unfeined purposes and resolutions to meddle no more out of your calling with the affaires of the Kingdome with which you were never intrusted But that you with other Subjects will acquiesse with what shall be concluded betweene King and Parliament And no question but upon your desire of pardon for what hath been done against them you shall find that according to the injunction given them by our Saviour they will be as willing to forgive and forget as you shall be to desire it Luke 17.2.3 I confesse this motion may seeme to Carnall Politicians to be very rediculous and like the maker of it very weake and simple But if ever you would enter upon a worke without consulting with flesh and blood next
to your salvation doe it now to save the Kingdome if you debate this motion in the Court of carnall reason it will be cast over the barre and want of its due recentment and acceptance But if the Lord by his convincing spirit through those convincing interrogations which I have propounded shall but awaken your consciences as he wrought upon those armed men in the History by Odeds unexpected coming out to meet them I should then hope all carnall and fleshly reasonings being denyed you would prove as imitable a president to future generations as I desire that army in the History may prove a convincing paterne to you Upon a sound conviction that army was changed in their purposes delivered up their Captives forsooke their spoyle and submitted to their Princes Oh that God by what I have propounded to worke this sound conviction would make it effectuall Then would you deliver up your Captives submit to your Princes and that blacke and bloody cloud of raine and confusion that is like to come upon you and the Kingdome would be scattered And let me adde thus much further that if to what hath beene propounded the Lord shall graciously incline your hearts As you shall therby revive the hearts of this dying Kingdome with hopes of a joyfull accommodation betweene the King and Parliament which for the present is only interrupted by your meanes I make no question but as you shall finde the Lord accomplishing his promise to you that when a mans wayes please the Lord he will make his enemies to be at peace with him So likewise stirring up the hearts both of King and Parliament to grant you that liberty of conscience that Christ hath purchased for you and not only so but giving you such favour in their eyes as still to be continued in such numbers and for such time as shall be thought convenient for the publique safety and that for your maintenance the people will chearefully pay their Taxes when they are but in some hopes of a comfortable end of all their troubles Weigh this I beseech you and consider that there are many thousands that although they cannot close with you or approve of your sinfull waies yet would be exceeding sad to see any of you that are the eminent Officers and Commanders of this Army or the Souldiery either That have done such gallant service as Souldiers exposed unto such a miserable condition as this course you are in doth inevitably tend unto We would willingly save you and pluck you as firebrands out of the fire rescue you from that sentence of death that your unwarrantable actions have possed upon you We would say of you who are the Jonathans the Worthy Commanders of the Army Shall Jonathan dye that hath wrought this great salvation in Israel God forbid 1 Sam. 14.15 But Oh do not you by shutting your eares against the counsell now given you destroy your selves and become your own executioners expose the Kingdome to perpetuall wars both sorreign and intestine Which that it may be prevented do not study how to evade any Arguments that I have presented before you for your conviction that there are in you even in you sins against the Lord your God But follow the example of these Worthies here in the History leave arguing against them and fall to acting and let me but humbly adde one thing more That if you shall but find your hearts inclining to the counsell and advice that I have laia before you and that this Scripture Expedient hath taken hold of your hearts That you as Saints and Christians as plainly and lovingly would administer the same Physick to the City There is no question but you with Oded may say unto them Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God and that not only absolutely but in relation to your selves and that the City with humilitie and due respects may tender the same expedient unto the Parliament to whom no doubt it may be said as unto the Souldiers and Governours in this Historie Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God and they likewise may present it unto the King who stands in need of a convincing Interrogation also Which Scripture Expedient being sincerely and cordially laid before each other out of Principles of Love and an unfained desire of Reconciliation that there may be no more disterences amongst us that are Brethren by so many bonds We according to the Gospel-precept Confessing our sins one unto another and praying one for another James 5.16 We who have so wofully wounded one another with wounds of all sorts and kinds we may be healed and may find the Lord graciously returning unto his Jerusalem healing us with revealing abundance of Peace and Truth And thus hoping by what I have presented before you I shall administer occasion to you to make use of Davids benediction 1 Sam. 25.32 Blessed be the Lord which hath sent thee this day to meet us and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept us this day from coming to shed blood from avenging our selves with our own hands And that I shall receive as comfortable an Answer from you as did that weak instrument vers 15. Goe up in peace to thy house for we have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted of thy person We look not upon the weaknes or the unworthinesse of the Instrument nor any failings of his in the delivery of his mind in the discharge of his Conscience Which aforesaid favour I doe the more importunately desire being conscious to my self of my own weaknesse and dis-abillity for this Service which though I might have bin helped against by consulting with some of the godly and learned Ministry in it yet I purposely declined the same knowing your prejudice against them as those which trouble your Babel Thus humbly beseeching the Lord to give the Comforter to be your Convincer I leave you to the serious consideration of what I have said and the Lord give you understanding Jer. 13.17 But if you will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret for your pride FINIS
Heads of the people whose names are upon record to their eternall honor stood up against them that came from the war and said you shal not bring in the Captives hither But yet to teach us that as they which are convinced of sins themselves will valiantly oppose sin in others So they are tender of giving any ground of just offence or showing wilfulnesse in their opposition therefore they do here give them a reason of it which containes an ingenious confession of their own sinnes ver 13 Intimating further That a sound conviction of sin is accompanied with an ingenious confession of sin And therefore say they ver 13. For whereas we have offended against the Lord already you intend to adde more unto our sins and our trespasses Concluding with all that The cruelties of an Army towards their brethren by Nation or Profession shall be charged not onely upon themselves but those that raised them And therefore said the Princes and the Governours you will adde unto our sins and our trespasses And let me but observe one thing more that these Heads of the children of Ephraim or Israell they were not the Heads of the Army for it is said expresty that these four Govenours they stood up against them that came from the War And therefore Mr. Will. Sedgwicks new Doctrine in his New view of the Army c. That when a State or Kingdom puts armes into Souldiers bards they divest themselves of their power and authority and consequently by it become the peoples Representatives which he doth indeavour to prove in severall Propositions Are all answered by this Scripture instance and the obedience of these Armed men that had no such Chaplaine and by which is evident that in this point Mr. Sedgwick is as sound in his judgement as he was upon the day of Judgement it selfe It appearing I say in this story that the Governours and Head of the people when the Army acted cruelly and sinfully to provoke the Lord to anger withstood them and opposed them in such away as declared they had not divested themselves of their authority and therefore not as unto their Equalls do they fall a praying and beseeching them Nor as to their Superiours in power to Petition them But as to those that were still under their command they speak in the Imperative Moode You shall not bring in the Captives hither for whereas we have offended against the Lord already you do intend to adde more unto our sins and our trespasses for our trespasse is great and there is fierce wrath against Israel Now follow the effects of this sound Conviction both upon the Army and the Princes for they are distinguished by the Holy ghost First observe the successe of it upon this successefull Army to whom by Oded it was directed v. 9 10. But are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God v 11. with which the Civill Magistrate concurring as I have shewed you so prevailed upon the Armie that they neither pretend to Salus populi they affirm not all their Brethren have is theirs that they have conquered them they say not have we not adventured our lives to get all this spoil and plunder No but they deny themselves in that which is a Souldiers joy to devide the spoil and as a President for all Souldiers to be at the command of those that raised them they submit themselves vers 14. So the armed men left the Captives and the spoil before the Princes and all the Congregation The Lord being intended to put a period unto the troubles of his suffering people works a happy conformity in the Army to the commands of the Princes And now to give us also a resemblance to the life of the sincerity of that sorrow that was in the Princes for what they had done amisse also though they could not shew it by putting life again into the dead carkases of their slaughtered Brethren yet they not only decline the intended cruelty of the Army But v. 15. they arise up and with the spoil cloath all that were naked of their captived Brethren and having comfortably resteshed them they return them home again in peace and liberty And I doe not find after this Reconciliation by the aforesaid expedient applyed unto them that were the Conquerors that there were ever after any more Civill wars between Israel and Jadah And thus now having presented you with a Story which doth in part gratifie your desire Remon p. 27. of a people given up unto a preposterous and self-deserting way so as to part with their Prisoners and plunder and be diverted from a cruell design But doth fully present you with a Scripture Expedient not only for the composing of our Divisions and ending this civill War but in particular most usefull to stay you in this your sinfull progresse and to alter your purposes and intentions declared in your Remonstrance To which end I shall as your Remembrancer remember you from whence you are fallen and into what condition and by propounding Odeds Interrogation indeavour to bring you to a sound conviction That there are in you even in you sins against the Lord your God Are there not with you even with you That doe professe your selves to be the Saints of the LORD and the children of the most High The Illuminated ones of the LORD and the children of the light such as are called with a holy calling to be conformable unto your head in humility meeknesse self deniall contempt of the world and saithfullnesse in your trust Upon which your aforesaid profession you were concluded to be such as would prove the only faithfull ones in your trust and without all question be obedient unto the Authority of those that raised you and put the sword into your hands But are there not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with you you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinnes Conscience-wasting and land-desolating sins as the same root is used Psal 34.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall not be desolate Against the Lord your God against him in whom you professe so much propriety and speak with so much boasting of his presence with you and your intimate familiarity communion and acquaintance with him Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God against him Absolutely and against him Relatively Absolutely and Immediately against his holinesse against his truth against his free grace against his glory against his Gospell against his mercies and against his Providence And Relatively are there not in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God in Relation to 1. the King 2. the Parliament 3. the Kingdome 4. the Ministry 5. the City 6. all that doe professe Godlinesse 7. and lastly in relation to your owne selves and soules That there are in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God under all these considerations That so you may be brought unto a sound conviction and may bee restored and set in
joynt again I shall endeavour by hard arguments and soft words to convince you from your owne Papers your practizes and declared purposes by all which it will appeare that though by many you have beene most miserably flattered yet besides those manifest fruits of the flesh which are predominant in many of you as Wrath Strife Sedition Heresie Gal. 5.20 There are likewise many other sinnes to be found amongst you that will declare that the Spots that are upon you are not the spots of Gods Children But before I begin besides what I have already sayd in my Preamble to take off all prejudice and that you might see into my heart and behold the Rise of this conviction which is the truest love that can be manifested I doe in the Bowels of Christ not onely desire your patience to reade over and over what I am now to lay before you though it may seeme to be expence of time and a diversion from your weighty imployments Because if effectuall may save you a great deale of time which otherwise you are like to spend in the undoing of your selves and the Kingdome But as I desire your patience to reade it so to be Patients And if to restore you and set you in joynt againe I should handle you hard to your feeling Consider I beseech you it is not intended to hurt you but to helpe and heale you If the Lord Jesus by the ligament of his convincing Spirit be but pleased to binde on that which I onely can apply to your dislocations I begin therefore with Oded to aske you this question Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord immediately Are not you who doe expresse so much bitternesse of spirit against others as Apostates Are not you guilty of Apostacy both Dogmaticall and Morall Have you not beene so farre from walking worthy of that liberty the Lord hath given us from Prelaticall Persecution by holding fast the forme of sound Doctrine of Faith and Love 2 Tim. 1.13 and that faithfull word you have beene taught As not onely to be carryed about with every wind of Doctrine to bring the Mysteries of faith unto the Barre of shallow and corrupt reason that incompetent Judge And to disgust and dislike those Ancient Truths of Humiliation for sinne and mortification of the same but also from these beginnings of Dogmaticall Apostacy into small errours proceeding unto such as doe race those very Fundamentall Poynts and Principles of Religion which have the greatest influence into practicall Holinesse Therein verifying Mr. John Goodwins assertion in his booke of justification in his Preface to the Reader Page 13. sayes he Lots plea for Zoar is it not a little one is at no hand to be admitted for the sparing of any errour A small errour cannot lightly be favoured or connived at but that great errours will be comprehended in the Indulgence Oh Brethren I beseech you be but serious in a selfe reflection in this particular who by Sathans subtlety and sophestry are so beguiled as that though your Gold be turned into Tynne your Silver into Drosse Truth into Errour Verity into Here is yet to conclude your condition was never better and therefore doe account those Ministers or Christians your greatest Enemies that doe oppose you Especially in your endeavoured for Act of * Tolleration Indemnity for all Apostates that shall depart from the truth I shall forbeare in this place interrogating whether there are not in you sins against the Lord your God Not onely by your misbeleefe in point of Errour and Heresie but by your unbeleefe the universall Cause or Mother of that Morall Apostacy you are guilty of because I shall have occasion to mind you both of that and your abuse of the mercies and providence of God by and by And not to mind you at large of your grand and Originall disobedience unto the Commands of the Parliament in Refusing to disband May 1647. your surprizing and removing the Kings Person from Holdenby without and against the Parliaments pleasure or privity and after that your marching up against the House accusing their Members presenting the House with Messages so full of arrogancy as was altogether inconsistent with humble Saints prescribing them a time with menacing expressions to answer you before night as is to be seen in some of your printed Letters and Messages which are upon record to the scandall of Religion I say not to mention or remember you of these any further then to bring you unto a sound conviction of your unconformity unto the Rule of the word and the example of your Saviour Oh the sinnes that are with you even with you against the Lord your God Even since as it was reported to the gladding of the hearts of many that were truely godly that you did keepe a day of Humiliation for those forementioned offences Yea even since you have found the Lord graciously preserving you from being devoured by a fire of your owne kindling from ruine and destruction through those late Insurrections both in England and Scotland of both which you were the occasion by your not disbanding I beseech you aske your selves this Question Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God Have not you abused the late mercies of God to your selves and this Kingdome those great Victories and speedy successes with which God had crowned you for the Kingdomes good Have not you crossed that providence of his by which as with a Sunne beame he writ his gracious intentions towards this Kingdome in ending their troubles by a Treaty having from so low a condition suddainely raised up our Representatives to a capacity of Treating upon Tearmes both Honourable safe and profitable for themselves and the Kingdome Have not you abused all by your practises and purposes declared in your Remonstrance That you have so I shall onely be your Remembrancer to remember you of an objurgation and expostulation with you of a Prophet of your owne Mr. William Sedgwick who though a very unlikely instrument yet in his Justice upon your Remonstrance in many places God hath opened his mouth as once he did Baalams Asse to reprove you Though now in his New view he would like that Prophets Animall carry you himselfe lest you should not move fast enough into those courses that are like to prove so destructive to your selves and the Cause of God But by the light he then had heare him from the quick stirrings of his owne conscience who professeth intimate acquaintance with your designes from the beginning pag. 23. Remon I say nay I pray heare his expostulation with you pag. 17. God hath beene gracious unto you and reprieved you for a while from destruction doe you thus abuse it to harden your hearts to pride malice and wicked insulting over your Brethren Is this the use of your Victories to have opportunities to doe more mischiefe and so treasure up wrath for your selves for all that you lay upon
others you provide it and store it up for your selves But besides this abuse of Mercies Victories and successes are there not with you even with you sinnes against the Lord Are you not distrustfull of his powerfull and providentiall care for you Is it not your unbeliefe that gathers strength in Christs absence that hath set your sinnefull feares on worke your corrupt selfe-love and carnall policy Why else have you taken hold of such ungodly meanes as now you use though covered with specious pretences in your Remonstrance You there pretend unto justice and that against the Kings Person as the most Capitall Offendor But let me be your Remembrancer of what is said to it by a Prophet of your owne Justice on Rem p. 42. 'T is not Justice you desire it appeares so to your blinde and deceived hearts but in the face of God it appeares farre otherwise But the searcher of hearts will deale otherwise with you and shew you what is within you and discover the falsehood and injustice of your spirits 43. Your Justice 't is but a bare name or a Heathen covering borrowed from men to hide your shame your malice your unbeliefe feare and such like monstrous lusts A cunning way to remove adversaries to take away those that stand in your way and paint them over with the names of Justice security to the Publique Interest and so Act them in the face of the Sunne For the Lords sake ponder this seriously with his instance following and be not deceived for God will not be mocked Oh take heede you that professe the knowledge of God in his Attributes and should hold forth a conformity unto him in your conversations to those that are communicable as his justice and truth how you plead justice for a cloake of maliciousnesse and to sinne so against his providence as to make it to be the Father not onely of your former perfidiousnesse and treachery against the Person of the King but of your present intentions to doe justice upon him which will appeare pag. 24. where you say God hath given him so clearly into your hands to do justice upon him when the world knowes you have perfideously and treacherously taken him in a snare will you make the righteous Lord such a one as your selves in whose essence or providence there is no iniquity Did God give him into your hands when you without the consent of both Houses tooke him away from Holdenby and after your tampering with him at Hampton-Court and possessing him with a false and notorious lye to make him in a wet and tempestuous night to leave that place to run into your Mouse-trap in which very act was such a concurrence of falsehood and perfideousnesse as never was committed by any Professors and yet this must be fathered by you upon your God who loveth truth in the inward parts You saying God having given him so clearly into your hands when as the world knowes you have taken him worthy Sirs I beseech you consider this least God say unto you These things have you done and I kept silence you thought that I was altogether such a one as your selves But I will reprove you and set your sins in order before your eies Psal 50.21 Having thus propounded Odeds question are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God against his truth against his mercies and against his providence immediatly or absolutely I shall but propound Odeds interrogation Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God Relatively And that first in relation to the King I speake not of any thing here that you have done as Souldiers in the subduing of his forces for which you were raised and in which had you rested you had been the most renowned Champions in Christendome But in referrence unto what you have acted out of your places and so without Commission and under this consideration in relation unto the King 1 Aske your Consciences this question are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord in relation to the King who are the Causes of hardning his heart but your selves when you permitted his Chaplains to be about him with the Service in its superstitious formality to be in use after so long a weaning from them by the wisdome of the Rarliament who hath hardened his heart against all that do professe Religion and strengthned him in his own way But you with whom he hath conversed and hath found to be so treacherous perfideous and unconstant At one time crying Hosanna another time crucifige At one time moving for the Restitution of his Majesties Person his Queen and Royall issue to a condition of Safety Honour and Freedom Proposall 14. 1647 July 2. Another time moving for the execution of his Person that he may be brought to tryall for his life when some of you perfideously got him under your power under the pretence of the preservation of his life from the Levellers Oh Christians will not this bee required at your hands 2 But in the next place Are there not with you even with you Sins against the Lord your God in relation to the Parliament if your Consciences be tender they will accuse you to purpose Not to speake largely of your former violence offered to the Parliament which you made to vote and unvote at your pleasure in those days Oh blush and be ashamed at the comparing of the preface to your Remonstrance and your following practises You there professe your tender regard to the Priviledges and Freedomes of Parliament on which your hopes of common Freedome and right do so much depend And yet your practises immediatly declare the greatest breach of both that ever was under the Sun Oh deare Sirs consider this seriously are there not with you even with you sins against the Parliament who put the Sword into your hands What is the Kings abuse of trust to yours For first you not onely by your expressions in your Remonstrance make this War for which they raised you to be offencive pag. 27. When as the Parliament by severall Declarations and in particular in a Covenant which they took and ingaged mee with others in it do propound this as that which we should be perswaded or beleeve in our Consciences That the Forces raised by the two Houses of Parliament are raised and continued for their just defence of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Subject against the forces raised by the King But this is not all the wrong you have done them for as you would pervert their sence in raising you so likewise their End which was to subdue the forces raised by the King but not to force and subdue themselves and to bring them under the power of the Sword and that in such a way as the Sun never saw nor would those dismall days of the 6 and 7 Decemb. being as darke and gloomey as the worke it selfe But besides that execrable force
execution of justice whilst they break out into such courses as are full of unrighteousnesse and tend to the ruine of others as well as themselves I beseech you Sirs weigh this seriouslie and consider whose case this is that I have propounded whither there be not in you even in you sins against the Lord your God in relation to all that are godly who upon the grounds aforesaid are exposed unto the irritated enmity of the men of the world though M. Peters say it is only for a little holines c. And though I hope that God wil take care of those professors that shal professe their present dislike of your present practises and mourn for them so as that they may be preserved if God see it good for them from that calamitie that shall come upon you yet assure your selves that without repentance you shall feele the justly exasperated rage of the men of the world and bee brought into a suffering condition as evill doers and where then will the spirit of glorie be to rest upon you you may peradventure by this argument think that I am too great a legalist and may think your selves to be above all these feares because that you are Saints and have your sins forgiven you But know that Aaron the Saint of the Lord with Moses and Samuel though God forgave their sins yet he took vengeance of their inventions Ps 90.8 and therefore be not high minded but fear least God to vindicate his glory to let the world know that he stands not in need of the sins of men to preserve his Church or Cause But that he is the Lord that loveth judgement and hateth robbery for a burnt offering Isa 61.8 should take vengeance on your inventions by exposing you unto a suffering condition as evill doers that have invented and do so strongly urge and act for it a Toleration that you might keep your selves from a suffering condition in relation to what you hold forth as truth we have a memorable example in the book of Martiers of one that could not burn for Christ and yet to save some goods his house being on fire was burnt and consumed by it The Lord give you in this your day to know the things that do belong unto your peace and that you may prevent that danger and destruction which these practises will produce For as there are in you sins against the Lord your God as in relation to others so unto your own selves these your unwarrantable waies and actions if they should not bring destruction upon the Kingdome yet as I have already intimated will without making your repentance as publicke as your offence bring you unto ceraine ruin and destruction And that you may see the danger you have brought your selves in as by all those sins of which I have been your Remembrancer so in particular by your intended change of the Government both of Church and State in opposition to King Parliament and Kingdom I shall commend unto your view Mr. Henry Burtons two Sermons for God and the King I shall onely give you his text with some part of its explication leaving it to your own application Prov. 24.21 22. My son feare thou the Lord and the King And meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both I shall only remember you of the admonition with his reason explicated in his own words Meddle not with them which are given to change Meddle is not meant here that wee may not meddle at all by way of reproofe detection conviction impeading or impeaching their wicked courses and practises that are given to change But not meddle that is have no fellowship side not countenance not approve not applaud not such men in their evill waies But who are these men we are admonished of Such as are given to change the best Interpreters expound it of Innovations of Religion or of the Republike So Mercer and Lavater and Pagnin renders it Such as change and break the commandements of God and of their Princes and fall away from the feare of God and the King in their rebellious lives but we need goe no further then our owne translation which is very full meaning it of all such as are factious seditious given to change the Lawes of God and the King page 6. 7. Now is the reason of the admonition annexed which is taken from the dangerous condition that those that are given to change are obnoxious unto the matter of their danger calamity and ruine set downe in its suddennesse in its certainty It shall rise that is although they seeme to be so high that are given to change as to surmount all feare of dangers as trampling all under their feet yet calamity shall rise above them and bring them to ruine as the Lord saith Ier. 37.10 page 8. 2. It shall arise suddenly and unexpectedly that is though there be no outward appearance of ruine to these men but that all things prosper and seeme to be on their side page 5. Yet who knoweth the ruine of them both this is subject to sundry interpretations the glosse and Lyra to both to Arch-heriticks and those that are seduced by them Mercenus and Lavater understand ruine of them both in an Active sense referring the ruine of those that are given to change to God and the King who both shall bring ruine upon those that are given to change So that those ring-leaders with their adherents and complices shall both fall and perish together and both God and the King that is the justice of Gods law and mans law shall conspire together to root them out page 8. And thus now having laid before you that from Mr Burtons explication of the Text which if but mixed with faith and applied must needs be energeticall in its operation to change your purposes I shall goe on as your Remembrancer having with Odeds interrogation indeavoured to convince you that there are in you even in you sinnes against the Lord your God both absolutely and relatively in relation to King Parliament Kingdome Ministery City with all that professe godlinesse I shall proceed to minde you of some aggravating circumstances with which some of your most publique sins are cloathed and also with some sad effects of them As first doe not you professe in your Remonstrance page 4. You are not ignorant that rule of salus populi suprema lex is of all others most opt to be abused or misapplied and indeed you show wherein it may be abused and how most truly But doth it not aggravate your guilt that you should abuse it in all those kindes The Lord give you tender consciences and then you will confesse that you have as truly abused it as you have described how it may be done For doe not your practices since the publishing of your Remonstrance together with what is in agitation by you declare page 4. That notwithstanding your pretences
of publique danger and the extremity thereof that yet from evill intentions and an inordinate temper of spirit you would breake those bonds of law and Magistracy which you finde to restraine you Besides which are not you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of your selves even out of the words of your owne mouths as being defective as in that which you your selves doe propound must concur to their full justification that shall plead Salus populi for you say he that ingageth page 5. Vpon such pretences must do it really for publike ends and but upon publike necessity or extremity and with a sober spirit But whether you are not unquallified in all these I leave it to God the World and your owne Consciences when awakened to judge whether in your pleading of Salus populi and your actings upon it instead of reall publike ends private interest carnall feares ambition pride an apprehension of your neglect in the Treaty no assurance of pardon for your fore-mentioned practices against the King and Parliament without and contrary unto commission are not really your publike ends that put you upon this plea of Salus populi That it is not for publike necessity and extremity except to beget it you have the cry of the whole Kingdome against you for it and if you have the quallification of the agent a sober spirit for your iustification let your actions upon it in the violent seising upon the persons of so many grave godly and publike Patriots of the Kingdome with horrible indignitie by turning them into Hell with such unheard of taunts and reproaches as are upon record in your Moderate Intelligencer that came out the tuesday following plead for you These things I say doe cry loud in the eares of God to whom you have appealed and as you acknowledge hath appeared as a severe avenger against such pretenders page 5. and without repentance will be a swift witnesse against you there being in you even in you sins against the Lord your God committed with this and many other aggravating circumstances For the Lords sake if you be Saints such as should be grieved at the least rise of corruption in your soules that should avoid all appearances of evill Oh let what I have propounded stay you in this your sinnefull progresse that you proceed not to fill up the measure of your iniquities Methinks it should move you if I should be your Remembrancer but of those miserable effects that are or may be the products of your abused trust and your unwarrantable walking by providence without a precept Should not the glory of God the honour of his great name be deare unto you Oh my soule thou hast heard the reproach of the adversary how are they confirmed in their profanenesse and superstition in their opposition unto the Reformation that hath cost so deare See See say they how all your hypocrisie is discovered and rather then they shall goe unpunished for their rebellion against their King those who were raised up to be their saviours shall be executioners of Gods vengeance upon them and though the Kings Party with his Cavaliers could not be avenged on this City the nursery of all this Rebellion yet it shall be done by an Army of their owne raising What is more common then such reproaches in the day of our calamity which you have brought upon us And is this nothing unto you Oh where I say is your zeale for God and his cause which you professe unto How is the name of God blasphemed amongst Atheists Papists Malignants profane and carnall persons by your fore-mentioned practises which hath opened their mouths against you how are your friends upbraided to the peircing of their souls when they say unto them Lo are these your Saints your godly and religious party which held forth nothing but justice Righteousnesse who were raised for the preservation of the fundamentall Lawes and of the priviledges of the Parliament and the liberty of the Subject and are now risen up in armes to ruine the King and his posterity to destroy the Parliament and give lawes unto the Kingdome did ever the profanest Officers or souldiers under Essex Waller or Massey attempt any of those things which they have effected Oh Sirs should not this be for a lamentation that instead of putting to silence 1 Pet. 2.15 the ignorance of foolish men by a conformitie unto those Gospell precepts 1 Pet. 2.13 Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreame or unto Governours You should open their mouths by your evill workes that they behold Oh Sirs consider at the last these true taunts of the adversary by which God is dishonoured and let them not only pierce your eares but your hearts Let me further I pray you be your remembrancer of another effect and a sad one too of these your present practises and that is this That you are not onely thereby cast out of the esteeme of Morall men as walking in such waies that by their light doe looke of an ill complexion But also out of the approbation of very many tender conscienced Christians who as they dare not say unto you in this your way we wish you will in the name of the Lord or bid you God speed least they should be partakers of your evill deeds 2 John ver 11. So they cannot remember you unto God in their prayers except it be that he would restraine you and hedge up your way with thornes and is not this a sad effect indeed Oh pray Sirs let this consideration take hold of your hearts and like Jeromes Surgite emortuis be ever sounding in your eares both in your Counsells and the execution of them That the arme of flesh being broken on which they trusted that staffe your selves on which they leaned having peirced them and gone into their hands they have betaken themselves unto the old and never failing weapons of the Church praeces lachrimae prayers and teares the mouths of which Cannons being turned against you Which I think though you are good souldiers should somewhat affright you and will if you are spirituall because they are spirituall weapons Besides which I pray let me remember you of another effect of your unwarrantable waies in relation unto the publicke now it comes in my minde and that 's this you have justified all the jealousies and feares that many dissenting from you had of you in your minoritie before moddellizing That if the power of the sword were wholly put into Independents hands they would abuse it for their owne selfe interest against the publicke have not you justified the Cities Remonstrance and their feares in this respect have not you made many supposed scandals in the Gangrend to be but true predictions But besides your justification of the feares of many which might fill your faces with shame As another effect of your miscarrages Have not you blasted the reputation of some eminent persons
amongst you that have ingaged for you either in the House of Commons to our Representatives That you would rather suffer and lay downe your armes at their feet then breake out into acts of disobedience Or in very publicke and promiscuous Congregation where there were too many hearers that came for newes or to make themselves merry with Mr. Peters mimick gestures and Pulpit-scurilities now Plaies are down I say have not you by your fore-mentioned practises made Mr. Peters a Lyar or worse who so often professed in your names in the Pulpit your readinesse to lay down your neckes lives and to live under rockes and Caves in America rather then not disband at the least intimation of the Parliament or to doe any act impeaching their Priviledges or proceedings I beseech you all seriously to consider this But especially you Mr. Peters to whom I have spoken all this while in generall as one of the Army though now in particular as to one that notwithstanding your former ingagements for the Armies obedience are now the greatest hardner of them in this way not onely by leading them by providence into these impious and preposterous courses by perverting the example of Phineas incouraging them in that for ever to be abhorred force of the Parliament by the frequent use of your rustie similitude of a key made bright again by your often use of it which before would not open the doore and therefore must be forced but also perswading them that all the opposition that is made against them in this way is but for a little holinesse a little of Christ in you Oh Mr. Peters is this good pasture for the Lambs of Christ which he would have you feed as you love him May not I well say unto you Oh Archippus Col. 2.17 Take heed unto the ministry that thou hast recived not onely that thou fullfill it But that thou fill it not full with such corrupt abuses of providence Scripture presidents and the partiall urging of some Scripture precepts for carnall ends as to expose the followers of your doctrine to that ruine and calamitie which as Mr. Burton hath observed shall rise over them that are given to change and yet through your unministeriall levitie and Pulpit scurilitie in your gestures and jeans making your poore seduced hearers like those that are stung with the Tarantula to die laughing But verbum sapienti hoping this digression will be pardoned being led unto it by providence But to return Besides your justification of the fears and jealousies of many of the godly concerning you There is a justification like to be produced as the effect of your present practises namely a justification of the wicked which is an abomination unto the Lord Prov. 17.15 Even to justifie all the Sons of Bellal not only such as have been before you in former times but those that shall come after you to whom you may be a sinfull President Doe but thinke with your selves whether or no Jack Cade and his confederates traiterous forcing of the Parliament in former times upon Popular pretences Henry Jermines Percies and Gorings Treason in practising to bring up the Northern Army towards London to over-awe and force the Paliament soon after its commencement and the Kings coming to the Commons House with an armed Train of Cavaliers to demand the five Members Jan. 4. 1641. voted to be a Treasonable Act and an high breach of the priviledge of Parliament are not only justified but exceeded by that force and violence offered to the Parliament by you Decemb. 6 7. And yet besides all this to be the justification as a President for any that shall perpetrate the like wickednesse for the future There is this likewise to be weighed as a sad effect that danger that other States and Kingdoms may be exposed unto by your Example either to be brought under by the Souldierie that they shall raise or else to be kept under by Tyrannie which they shall rather choose then put a Sword into the hands of any to help them lest it should be turned against them when they have done their work as you have done You seem to have a little sence page 34. Remon what will bee the judgement and the sense that will be aptly made by intelligent Spectators of this and neighbour Nations and ages to come of some kind of defect in the Treaty in regard of the Kings restraint in the Isle of Wight But dear Christians you forget that there are intelligent Spectaters of this and neighbour Nations yea and ages to come that will have your perfidious practices upon record and by accident you may be the inslaving of other free people as well as we that will rather with Issachar couch down between their burthens and become servants unto illegall Tribute then run the hazard of having them trebled by those whom they trusted to take them off I beseech you therefore if there be any fellowship of the Spirit if there be in you any bowels of mercy any pittie in you towards your selves your families your friends this dying Kingdom if any zeal for Gods glorie any sence of his dishonour any love to his people any true tendernesse of conscience Make your repentance for your grosse miscarriages as eminent and as publike as your sint Let but Odeds convincing Interrogation get within your consciences that there are with you even with you sins against the Lord your God under all these considerations whereof I have bin your faithfull remembrancer and I doubt not but there will be as evident fruits in the changing of your purposes and intentions as was in those Souldiers in the History and your subjection unto the Princes being answerable with theirs may put a speedy end to our troubles turning our preposterous zeal of executing of justice upon one another into the execution of those king-like lusts within us that war against our soules And to this purpose I shall go on to be your Remembrancer of that counsell that Oded exhibited unto the Army having prepared them for it by his convincing Interrogation 2 Chron. 28.11 Now hear me therefore and deliver the Captives again which you have taken of your Brethren for the fierce wrath of God is upon you Hearken unto me I beseech you to whom I have directed my discourse that God may hearken unto you it was the speech of Iotham upon a violent change of government through the effusion of blood Judg. 9.7 Oh hear me and deliver the Captives again which you have taken shew that God hath touched your hearts with a sence of your sins by a speedie imbracing of this counsell I now tender unto you I do not call upon you to deliver up any of your prisoners of war which are of your Brethren English or Scots although here is a good call somewhat like it the Lord himself teaching you how to bee differenced in your carriage in a time of war towards Bretheren and Forrainers But deliver those Captives that you
of God in Religious zeal And because that he hath another aphorisme which may well be referred without any independencie to this common place that I am now upon as you shall find written Printed I should say for your instruction pag. 37. Just Remon See how abhominable Religion is when once corrupted there are no kind of men can be such compleate and new knaves as a Jesuite a Pharisee an old well studied professor of Religion when once mens Consciences are defiled and they begin to trade in the world with a pretence that t is for God they are so cunning that no bonds of honesty or faith can possibly hold them But ceasing to remember you any further of your Chaplin of whom I shall take my leave with this Encomium that had he bin as infallible in his opinion of the generall day of Judgement as he will be taken to be in those quotations that doe concerne you we had not then seene those sorrowes that are like to come upon the Kingdom by your meanes I returne to the occasion of my discourse upon the Covenant with which one bush I hope I have stopped two gaps By the way answering what you have alleaged to the enervation of that article in the Covenant the preservation of the Kings person and authority and consequently evincing that for me to move it or you to follow it namely to set the Kings person at libertie to treat with his Parliament That so your great feares of nulling all his grants and concessions upon the plea of his restraint may be taken away is no malignant motion or breach of covenant I know that you doe anticipate this motion by a representation very large in your Remonstrance of the unjustnesse and safenesse of a Treaty with him which is already answered in short But in the stead thereof that rather his Person should be brought to justice For which you have two strong arguments the one you often use God having given him so clearely into your power to doe justice page 24. and severall other places But I hope if you doe but consider seriously how you came by him of which I have remembred you already you will use that argument no more The other because that you finde that his heart which in a more especiall manner is in the hand of God is not changed page 24.56 Therefore you will cut off his head as strange a cure for a hard heart as are your conclusions from the premises aforesaid But I wonder not much at them when you make a profession of the light you goe by viz. reason or experience the ordinary lights men are in humane things to walke by Remon page 45. 46. But doth not this show that you are carnall and walke as men for our reason and experience even in humane things are to be denied if we walke as Saints rather then run upon an appearance of evill And to cleare it I shall give you an instance of a Saint who in your judgement was given up unto a preposterous and selfe deserting course page 27. walking not by carnall reason or experience no nor yet by providence without precept 1 Sam. 24.3 King Saul was by the providence of God put into Davids hand and that so clearely as that his souldiers led by reason told him in effect that God had delivered him into his hand to do justice on him ver 4. But did David make use of his carnall reason If I now cut him off I shall be secure and safe from his further pursuite of me for my life and I shall attaine unto the Crowne a strong temptation No his tender conscience smote him but for cutting off the Kings garment though but to convince his enemy that he might as easily have cut off his head ver 11. and not only so but from the same tendernesse of conscience he would not be accessary unto the sinne of his servants who it seemes being ruled only by their carnall reason were ready to rise up against Saul had not this Saint by arguments impeded them ver 7. And so David stayed his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul But what were those words ver 6. and he said to his men the Lord forbid that I should doe this thing unto my master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. But yet further as you see he would not walke by reason as a man so neither would he walke by his experience against the rule for though he had found by experience that the King being set at liberty did still pursue his life as you find 1 Sam. 7.26 Yet when providence had brought him into his hand againe though Abishai told him God hath delivered thine enemy into thy hand this day now therefore let me smite him providence hath presented me with a weapon his owne Speare But did David as a man walke by his experience he finds by experience Saul still thirsting after his blood and might not he have reasoned so I find no inward conviction remorse or change of heart and principles rationally appearing in him page 56. he is so farre from being sorry for what he hath done already notwithstanding my ingenuity in sparing his life before that he is resilesse in his pursuite of me and therefore it would not onely be full of visible danger and unsafe but it may prove certainely destructive to me if I should goe against my experience and let him goe I will now therefore be led by reason experience and by providence and execute justice upon my implacable adversary But if you consult with the story you shall finde that he would neither do it himselfe or incourage any other But rather staieth and diverts Abishai from the same by this divine prohibition which the Lord bring home to your hearts ver 9. And David said unto Abishai destroy him not in your language execute not justice upon him and what is his reason who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords anointed and be guiltesse ver 10. David said furthermore as the Lord liveth the Lord he shall smite him Or his day shall come to dye Or he shall descend into battell and perish ver 11. the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hands against the Lords anointed Let me be your Observator here I beseech you what diverted him either as a principall or accessary from walking at this time by the ordinary light of reason and experience do but peruse his Arguments and you shall finde in them that though his feare and sence of guilt was in the front yet his faith and confidence in God brought up the reare for you shall finde him there not using his sense but his faith which he did act upon the justice and righteousnesse of God with most admired confidence concluding that though he use no such sinnefull meanes for selfe-preservation yet he solemnly asserts as the Lord liveth that